Religion in Cuba

Here's an interesting example of the vagaries of getting information about Cuba. A few days ago, I read an article from Christian Today, entitled Archbishop: Religion Growing in Cuba. Yesterday, I'm combing through the news and find another, this one under the headline, Catholic Church Losing Strength in Cuba from the Sun-Sentinel.


In first, Ethan Cole quotes Archbishop Dionisio Guillermo Garcia Ibanez of Santiago


“The faith of our community has manifested, it has been reborn,” said Garcia, during a recent visit to Miami, according to The Associated Press. “The Catholic faith in our community has resurrected.”


Garcia cited the ability to knock on doors to share the gospel, hold religious processions in streets, and the ability to broadcast Catholic radio programmes as indicators that progress had been made in securing religious freedom in Cuba’s religious freedom

This would seem to contradict the Sanchez article, which quotes now retired Archbishop Pedro Meurice


"In the end, we have not accomplished what we're entitled to; the Catholic Church has not been granted the right to evangelize and spread without fear of losing its religious freedom," Meurice said in a recent interview.

Sanchez expands on this citing the fate of workshops and a Catholic magazine editor, Dagoberto Valdes. According to whom

"What has happened with Vitral and the civic center … demonstrates that significant restrictions are now being applied," Valdes said. "I'm being prudent in using the word 'restrictions.' I think these services are being eliminated."

Where is truth, then? Well, even Garcia's host, another prelate, tempers his optimistic comments.

“That is a society that is not pluralistic, it is unidimensional and somehow they have to live with that reality,” said Bishop Felipe Estevez, an auxiliary bishop with the Archbishop of Miami. “They are kind of talking out of adversity.”

A sentiment echoed in the second article by Meurice

Meurice said: "Below the surface, very little has changed. While the state is no longer officially atheist, there is still only one party, the Communist Party."

In the eyes of this jaded observer, it would seem that after the Pope's visit there was significant loosening of religious restrictions, read that as the churches were not outlawed. The people responded as they respond to any lifting, no matter how small, of the governmental yoke. True to form, however, the government, threatened, has begun pulling back just as they did with small private enterprises. Read both and come to your own conclusions.

What was that about a riddle wrapped inside an enigma?